It started a week into February. Which, in hindsight, Lando Norris would later insist should have been enough warning for everyone. February made people stupid. Valentine's Day made them catastrophic.

The paddock was only beginning to swap Christmas decorations for aggressively pink marketing campaigns when Max Verstappen wandered into the hospitality carrying a coffee and the expression of a man who had just invented electricity.

Lando looked up from his phone. He'd known Max long enough to recognize danger.

"I've just had the best idea."

Lando closed his eyes. No. Absolutely not. Every sentence that had ever started with those words had ended with Laurent sighing, GP apologizing to someone, or Lando developing another wrinkle. He is too young for this shit.

"What."